My aim is to offer insights into some of the more subtle principles underpinning prints. The commentary is based on thirty-eight years of teaching and the prints and other collectables that I am focusing on are those which I have acquired over the years.
In the galleries of prints (accessed by clicking the links immediately below) I am also adding fresh images offered for sale. If you get lost in the maze of links, simply click the "home" button to return to the blog discussions.

Sunday, 27 August 2017

Hieronymus Wierix’s engraving, “Allegory on the Mercy of Christ”, 1581

Hieronymus
Wierix (aka Hieronymus Wierx; Jerome Wierix) (1553–1619)

“Allegory on the Mercy of Christ”, 1581, published by Hans Liefrinck II (fl1581–88)

Note: some authorities propose that the publisher is Hans
Liefrinck I (1518?–73) but this is not possible mindful that Lierinck (the
elder) had already passed away before this print was executed. According to the
BM there is another Hans Liefrinck “who was the son of Cornelis Liefrinck and
worked in Leiden” but again the date that he died, 1599, confirms that he could
not be the publisher either and this leads me to attribute Hans Liefrinck II as
the publisher.

Engraving on laid paper trimmed to the image borderline and
slightly within the borderline on the left side.

Inscribed within the image borderline at lower left upon a stone: “Jeroninmus.
Wi. / fecit. 1581”

Inscribed below the image borderline in two columns of three lines:
“[E]n Deusad veniam pronus … // … in imagine serunt.”; with publication
details at centre between the two columns: “Johannes / Lifrinck / Excud”.

Condition: crisp impression trimmed along the borderline and
within it on the left side and lined upon a support sheet of laid paper. The sheet
is slightly age-toned with light restoration of small areas of minor abrasion
and there is a closed tear (approximately 1 cm) on the lower edge towards the
right.

I am selling this of magnificently rendered large engraving that
is so rare that it is not in the collection of the British Museum, the
Rijksmuseum or the Metropolitan Museum of Art and executed by one of the major printmakers
of the Renaissance era for the total cost of AU$468 (currently US$371.78/EUR311.63/GBP288.50
at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the
world.

If you are interested in purchasing this very beautiful print—mindful
that prints of this rarity are virtually never seen on the market place—please
contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal
invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

While I was closely examining this spectacular engraving—one that
is so rare that none of the major museums (viz. The British Museum, the
Rijksmuseum and The Metropolitan Museum of Art) appear to possess a copy—I
found myself becoming more and more involved in trying to decipher the symbolic
meanings of the print. For example, my brain was slow to realise that the cow
that Christ stands upon was not a reference to his birth in a manger—a cow’s
feeding trough. Instead the cow is a symbolic attribute of Saint Luke, but this
realisation only occurred once I had pieced together the idea that the
combination of the three animals surrounding Christ (viz. cow, lion and eagle)
and the angel on his left were actually the symbolic attributes of the four
evangelists: Mathew, Mark, Luke and John. Moreover that my initial quandary over
the awkwardness of the Christ shown raising his left foot rather than his right
one—a pose that right-handers like myself find very unnerving to look at—was
nothing at all about physical movement but rather about spiritual transcendence
to a heavenly realm filled with adoring fat folk.

To be honest, however, I had to do a quick Google to find the
significance of Christ shown with a square halo rather than a round one. The
reason is surprisingly simple: the square halo symbolises that Christ is still
in the temporal world and the shape of the halo will change to a round one once
he transcends the world of the mortals.

Regarding this notion of spiritual transcendence, note how Christ’s
arms are arranged to suggest an arrowhead and how the leaning pose of St John
and the Virgin extend the angle of this arrowhead pointed to heaven.